This week has been pretty busy on the out and about scene! Steve and I enjoyed two mid week dates (laziness and not wanting to cook had nothing to do with it!) and visited a Thai restaurant on Tuesday followed by an Argentinian one on Thursday.

Monday was Ling's birthday and we met up on the Wednesday for some Korean. Happy birthday Ling - may you stay forever youthful!Steve had a work function on at the MCG where he had dinner and listened to various sporting personalities and celebrities make speeches so it was just me as the gooseberry to the lovely Mr and Mrs Choong.

Friday - I had a great dinner and drinks session with Kirsten and Kim both former Hudson colleagues. We started off with cocktails and a great dinner at Cumulus where Kirsten's boyfriend (makes her sound 12 doesn't it?) is a chef. He and the team there really looked after us and we really enjoyed it.

With full bellies, Kim kindly walked me home before going in search of a taxi. Along the way we did some elephant chasing around the CBD and Southbank. There are lots of elephant statues dotted around the city at the moment all in different designs. This one has a knitted covering all in grey whereas the others tend to be painted.

The weather seems to be gradually improving and Saturday was a beautiful Spring day. Cool temperatures with a stiff breeze but lots of sunshine and a blue sky with puffy white clouds. Steve and I decided to go for a walk (short) along the river and explore the new development of Hamer Hall and the Arts Centre. We'd read and heard that there were two new restaurants there and the hall itself was now complete. We stopped for lunch and also had a wander round the hall which was all shiny and new. There were a few people just enjoying the peace there curled up in the chairs. I'm not sure if I'd ever just park myself there for an afternoon reading a book like these guys were doing but if I had to I guess it's not a bad place to do so.

The Demery's kindly invited us to their hacienda for a Mexican fiesta on Saturday with Chris and Katherine along. The 6 of us are the Sunday evening 6pm supper club but we had a slight change this time to a 7pm Saturday gathering. It was so good. We had cheese covered corn on the cob Mamasita style followed by a great chilli. Margaritas were excellent and we even had frozen ice lolly ones for dessert. Loved the decorations, the food and the hospitality. Thank you!

Sunday was fun too and Steve and I headed to St Kilda to meet Christine for lunch. Christine brought her boyfriend Andrew and another friend Alice who was visiting from Hong Kong. It's also her birthday today so great to be able to have a pre celebration with her.

I thought I'd share a little more about work in this post. This is a picture of my desk. There's lots of space and it's very comfortable. A window view would be nice but I've had worse work stations.

On Friday we had an internal staff launch of the new Energy Australia brand. Last year TRUenergy bought the name and customers of Energy Australia (which was based in New South Wales) and so this year's task is to bring the two together.

To kick off the new identity with new logo we had a launch event at the Convention Centre where we watched the ads that are about to be shown on national TV and were privy to presentations made by executives. Two Australian Olympians (one with a gold medal which she brought with her) and a Melbourne All Stars cricketer also made an appearance during a Q & A session. I believe there's some sponsorship relationship there.

Presentations were followed by a swanky cocktail party with a live band and little food stations dotted throughout the room as well as a massive bathtub sized vat of ice with more raw oysters than I have ever seen. And with an night time view of beautiful Melbourne it was a great place to spend the early hours of Friday evening.

Later on I joined Steve and some of the PwC crowd for some more drinks in Southbank close to home and after some late night cheese on toast, Friday was finito.

The rest of the weekend has been very relaxed. Whilst we had intentions of perhaps going out for the day on Saturday, the grey weather was a convenient excuse to stay indoors and lucky for Steve, no excuse left, no more procrastination, we did a wardrobe tidy out! If you have read the last few posts, you'll know how much motivation I needed to get my wardrobe done and managed this a few weeks ago. Well, I managed to get kick Steve's tushy into gear and we went through his. He did moan and whinge though.

We also had enough time for a few cocktails and dinner out a couple of times! Well it wouldn't be a Barley weekend if we didn't do that!

Firstly and most importantly some great news from this week! The most delicious baby Indy Grace Barnes came into the World on 08/08 at 18:38 weighing 6lbs and 12 oz. She's a teeny tiny little girlie with an impressive wardrobe and already knows how to make an entrance!

Here are the proud parents. They were very patient as they waited for Indy to arrive. Karly did an amazing job as she worked tirelessly to bring beautiful Indy into the World. Indy was a little shy and didn't want to come and see us all initially - she was too comfy in mummy's tummy!

Talking of babies and having to be patient my darling sister finally finished work this week. She has been such a trouper and has worked really hard finishing only 2 weeks before her due date! She's working so hard to make sure she can give the best start in life to the yet to arrive Amelia Grace and I respect her so much for that.

Here you can see her at her surprise baby shower that her great hubby and good friend Charlotte organised. A few of her friends have had babies recently so here she is getting some practice in. I'm impressed by the size of her bump. I bet she waddles now! Missing her lots and really want to stroke her tummy and feel Amelia Grace kick.

So what else has happened this week? I met up with Tanya for dinner and to tell her about my second week at work. Incidentally week 2 has been busier and it's all still good. We had a team building session on Friday that was productive and enlightening.

This weekend, Steve and I enjoyed a seafood lunch o the Saturday. Giant seafood martini - so yummy.

Saturday night we double dated with the Choongs and explored the Asian suburb of Glen Waverley. Sadly we missed out on dessert this time so until next time.

Today Steve and I enjoyed Sunday lunch in Carlton and he headed to the footy whilst I brought back some sweets for my sweet which we enjoyed after dinner. Not all of them of course.

Dinner tonight was pappardelle Bolognese - a Barley favourite made with one whole bottle of good red wine!

I started my new job on 1st August which was Wednesday. Lucky for me, week 1 was only 3 days long so being broken in gently. Thank you for all the text, Facebook, Linkedin, Skype messages and phone calls wishing me luck and all the best. Really appreciated the love, care and concern.

Just as a quick update the first three days went really well. Everyone seems extremely friendly and welcoming. I feel self motivated and positive and although the job is not without its challenges, I'm excited about it all. So it's a good start and I'll keep you posted about week 2.

So whilst in between jobs I had a week and a half off. I had plans to sleep a lot and recharge the batteries and the one big job I wanted to get done was do a wardrobe sort out. So my goals for the week weren't too onerous and I envisaged I would have a lot of time to potter about and spend time with Karly who is on maternity leave.

Things actually got pretty busy...and at one point I wondered if the wardrobe would ever get sorted...

So here is how I spent the last ten days without work...

Monday was a Karly day and after a suitably long lie in (11am!) we met for lunch in the Winter sunshine by the water.

We followed up lunch with a little bit of shopping.

Shopping was rounded off with a cupcake and cuppa.

By the time I got home, there wasn't long until Steve was home so I didn't want to start on the wardrobe. Besides it was only Monday so plenty of time...

Tuesday was my shopping day and after another long lie in (midday!) I spent the day browsing the shops for some new goodies! Nothing better than shopping mid week as it's less busy and it doesn't impinge on weekend time.

And after shopping I had to fulfil my promise to my friend Greg. I'd promised him lemon cake ages ago and never had time to make it so had said it would happen when I was off so I had to deliver.

After baking and dinner, I really had no motivation to clear out the wardrobe. Besides it was only my second day off...plenty more to come...

Wednesday was spent with Ling. No lie in as I had an appointment for a hair cut (much needed as it's been almost 6 months since the last one!) and straight after that I headed to Box Hill to meet Ling.

We enjoyed Asian cuisine in Box Hill starting off with dumplings and then followed by congee and Viet sandwiches (banh mi). And of course we had egg tarts for dessert.

We then headed to Richmond as Ling had an appointment there and I went with her and we met up with Steve, Noah and Stef for dinner at Pacific BBQ later on.

By the time Steve and I arrived home I was too tired for anything more than sitting on the sofa and the wardrobe lay untouched.

Brief interlude - see my beautiful flowers given to me as a leaving gift from my former colleagues. They opened up by about Thursday and were so gorgeous. Thanks guys! And I also drank the wine which was delicious. The chocolates are still in the fridge but not for long!

Thursday and Friday was one big baking bonanza. Thursday morning I shopped for ingredients and also headed to Camberwell to a coffee shop there where my friend Christine works. I'd promised to go see her in her workplace as she loves it there and wants to share it and also to try out her coffee making barista skills.

Thursday night I started some of the baking prep work and made the filling for the curry puffs. Yep you guessed it, no progress on Project Wardrobe. And now I was beginning to wonder if I would have time as I still had other things to do in the coming few days...

Friday came bright and early. After Tuesday's mammoth midday lie in I'd pretty decided I couldn't continue like that so began waking earlier..9am starts instead. Hey, I'm on leave so there has to some indulgence. I headed to Williamstown and met up with Karly and we spend the whole day baking goodies for her non baby shower the next day. It was a non baby shower as it wasn't very traditional as we had partners and husbands, kids and friends all there. So it was more a celebration for the parents to be and an excuse to get together.

In the Barnes' kitchen we made curry puffs, cupcakes, a lemon drizzle cake. We also shopped for other buffet items and enjoyed a good fish and chips lunch.

I was home about 5pm and continued the baking with a celebration cake and Tanya came after work to make sausage rolls and quiches. So yep there was a whole lot of baking and not enough time for a wardrobe sort out.

Steve helped me out with icing the cake. I was a touch too heavy handed with the food colouring so pale pink icing became hot pink icing.

Saturday was baby shower day and time to eat all that was baked. Was great to see people again and Jacqui brought Pete and Tom who just wanted to eat Cheezles. No to the sausage rolls, mini pies (they call them party pies here and they're very popular), curry puffs and all the other delights just a plate of Cheezles. Cheezles are like Wotsits in the UK but are ring shaped.

Sunday was market day and Steve and I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking a Sunday roast for the Demerys, Chris and Katherine who came over.

We'd been to Chris and Katherine's previously on a Sunday evening and we felt that it was a success meeting relatively early, having some food together and then finishing early enough so that Monday school day is not affected.

And that was my first week of leisure time and my wardrobe was still a mess.

I treated myself to a little lie in on Monday and followed that up with a jaunt to the city and after that I couldn't really put off wardrobe tidying so I started on that.

Tuesday I had lunch plans with Stef and yes, finished off the wardrobe work all in time for work on Wednesday!

So ten days of leisure, ten days of pleasure? For sure! But glad to be a working woman once more. I can't enjoy the leisure if I don't have work to compare it too!

Authors

We are Steve and Minda and we've been given the opportunity to move to Melbourne for two years. We arrived November 2010 and passed that two year milestone and are now Australian citizens! This is a blog of our experiences as we move to this new country, settle in and have fun!